LCLD Weekly News Digest 2/7/18

February 7, 2018

Share

Compiled for the LCLD Board of Directors every Wednesday, this digest is designed to brief you on the latest headlines about LCLD Members and organizations, as well as thought-provoking articles on diversity in the legal profession, talent development, mentoring, and leadership. Past issues of the Digest are also archived on the LCLD web site.

If you have questions about the Digest, articles you'd like to share, of if you would like to subscribe, please email Communications Specialist Caitlin Puffenberger at cpuffenberger@lcldnet.com.

“I’m here because someone early in my career looked past the traditional pedigree screen, saw something in me, and gave me a chance. I think others deserve that same opportunity,” said Alan Braverman, LCLD Board Member and General Counsel of The Walt Disney Company, on receiving the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity’s Spirit of Excellence Award.

Announced this week by Stephanie Scharf, LCLD Member and Chair of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, a new resolution from the ABA provides suggestions on how employers can address and prevent sexual harassment.

“Inclusion is how you actively make the most of the diversity at the table, which you can’t do unless you’re willing to put majority culture aside a little bit and be receptive to others,” said LCLD Member Sharon Barner, General Counsel of Cummins in an interview with fellow LCLD Member Kimberly Johnson, Chair of Quarles & Brady.

“If the same cultural inequities are permitted to operate in laws as in the behavior the law prohibits, equalizing attempts—such as sexual harassment law—will be systemically resisted,” writes law professor Catharine MacKinnon.

Don Liu, LCLD Member and General Counsel of Target, and Linda Lu, 2013 Fellow and Chief Litigation Counsel at Nationwide, say Asian-American representation among both corporate and law firm leadership still needs to improve.

“There’s enormous partner talent to be harnessed by getting past antiquated ideas that women partners can’t perform or don’t want to have high-powered careers, and instead focusing on how to mitigate the perceived risk of not progressing professionally early in their partner careers,” write researchers Hugh Simons and Paola Cecchi-Dimeglio.